End of a Beginning
by EmpireofShadow
Summary: My take of Shadow's last day aboard the A.R.K.. Rated T for Death
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: I think I'm a bit better at shorter stories than longer ones (which I really don't have patience for). This story will probably be only four chapters long.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing Sonic Related, period!**

In this world, it has been widely accepted that life is chaotic. Few things we do are ever set in stone, and the choices we make affect not only ourselves, but those around us as well. The smallest pebble can cause a rockslide, and, in the same way, what we do can change things drastically the world over.

Life is chaotic, this is undeniable, but it also ordered in that chaos. There is a rhyme and reason to it that even the greatest of minds have not been able to explain, but it exists never the less. It is as if life is heading toward an inevitable goal we can not begin to comprehend, but that is a discussion best left for another time.

Now, I will tell you a story. A story of an end set in the void of space. A story of a steel haven known as A.R.K.. A story of a pure soul and a tormented shadow. A story of sorrow and sadness and hope. A story not only of the chaos of life, but also the unsettling order it has.

Space Colony A.R.K. 50 years ago

Ruby red eyes carefully observed the dark console laid out before him, tapping a few keys to start the machine with a low hum. Blank screens blipped to life, showing it's user the scenes he wanted to view.

Shadow studied the live footage images of the Biolizard before him with a keen intensity, as if the secret of life itself could be gleamed from this affront to nature. He had some things he wanted to work through, and, despite the contempt he felt towards it, he had found that something about the Biolizard, either by proximity or visually observing it, always put him in a clearer state of mind.

The Biolizard was currently settled in one of the liquid energy channels that ran through it's home in the core of the A.R.K.. The beast seemed to have only two modes of operating either being listless or, fortunately only on rare occasions, excessively aggressive on a dangerous scale.

The eyeless head of the Biolizard slowly moved so that the two pipes that ran to where its eyes would be stared straight at the monitor Shadow was observing it through.

Shadow retuned its stare for a few minutes before shifting his gaze to another screen, this on showing the Biolizard's tail end. Again, slowly, it shifted it long ungainly neck to look at the same monitor, this time with an unmistakable aura of one smiling as if to say, 'I see you.'

Shadow couldn't honestly say he was surprise. The Biolizard was much smarter than most people believed, even if it was a more predatory intelligence, and both he and the creature could practically feel each other through their shared connection to chaos energy. The Biolizard felt like a gravity well, drawing massive amounts of power from the air around it, but not truly producing it himself. Even through hundreds of feet of steel separating them Shadow could still feel its tug.

'I won't end up like you, I won't end up as some lab rat to be poked and prodded and studied,' Shadow thought towards the abomination.

Again the Biolizard somehow affected an aura of smiling. This time, Shadow had the chilling feeling he could here a reply whisper, 'Of course you will.'

The soft sound of the sliding doors opening knocked him out of his trance. He turned around to see Maria standing in the doorway, smiling and panting slightly.

"I knew I'd find you here Shadow," she said between breaths.

Shadow put all dark thoughts to the back of his mind as he adopted a teasing smile. "And how, pray tell, did you know that?"

Maria, having quickly caught her second wind, pasted a similar expression. "After living with you for three years, of course I know all your regular haunts."

Shadow was glad she didn't pry, he wasn't quite ready to share his worries to her quite yet. "Well, did you just come here to show that you could find me, or is there some other reason?"

Her blue eyes positively twinkled in a way that he always had loved. "There something I want you to see." With that she grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him out of the room.

How we choose to live today, affects our tomorrow.


	2. Wish I may, Wish I might

**Author's Note: Honest reviews, please.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything is a trademark of Sega.**

* * *

I wish I was someone else tonight.

Shadow tried to ignore the looks he received from the few people the pair came across on their way to Maria's surprise, people he had once counted as friends. They weren't looks of anger nor disgust, no it was not that.

They were looks of genuine worry and fear.

He couldn't really fault them their fear though, not after what had happened less than three weeks ago, after, literal, chaos had broken out.

**-Flashback-**

Shadow skated as fast as he could through the corridors, ignoring the yellow warning light that meant for everyone to go to there quarters immediately. He didn't know what exactly was happening, but he did know that his first priority was to find Maria.

He soon reached the cafeteria, the place where Maria had said she was going.

What he saw stopped him cold.

There were perhaps a dozen, all massed around one corner of the room. Light blue bodies that shifted and squirmed like possessed jello, small gray skulls, and soulless green eyes, Artificial Chaos tended to both disgust and amaze at the same time. Shadow vaguely remember Gerald telling him that they had been based off of some God of Destruction, but such remembrance was quickly cut short when he saw why the creatures were only in one corner of the room.

Six people huddled there, clinging to each other in a pool of their own blood under the watchful eyes of their tormenters. Each looked scared beyond reason, various cuts covering each of them. Shadow watched as one of the creatures formed a tentacle from its body, the new appendage hovered for a moment, before striking, cutting a gash in one of the captive's cheeks, eliciting a small cry.

Shadow knew that voice. As moved he saw another creature lash out a tentacle, this time with much deadlier intent. To his eyes, it seemed to move slowly towards it's victim, a victim with golden hair and scared blue eyes.

And something in him broke.

**-Present-**

Shadow sighed slightly as Maria led him through the sliding door of the space observation room. He couldn't quite remember what had happened next, but he was later told that he torn threw the creatures, exhibiting a frightening amount of control over chaos that no one, himself included, knew he possessed. Since then, everyone except Maria and Gerald wouldn't even talk to him. The thought of him becoming something like the Biolizard forefront in their minds. Gerald had gone to Earth to ease such concerns with G.U.N. a week ago.

Quickly, he again put such thoughts out of his mind, not wanting to worry Maria, and turned his attention to the view of Earth he was accustomed to.

Except there was a noticeable addition to the view.

Somewhat shell-shocked Shadow turned to Maria and asked, "Is-is that….."

If ever a person looked completely pleased with themselves it was Maria in this moment. "Yep," she chirped, "say hello to Little Planet."

Outside the thick Plexiglas in this room one could always get a breathtaking view of Earth, but today it shared this scene with another fertile astral body. Hanging off to the side was Little Planet, aptly named because, despite being labeled a planet, it was small enough to be caught in Earth's orbit. This, combined with Earth's moon hanging as a backdrop made for such a beautiful picture that Shadow forgot all his problems in awe.

Which was probably the point.

Shadow quickly tried to remember everything he knew about Little Planet. He knew that, according to most scientists, it, for some reason, subsisted outside time, appearing for a few weeks directly above Never Lake. No one knows why it does this, but exploration upon it's surface proves that it has an ecosphere identical to that of Earth's. Also, interestingly enough, during a later expedition, marks made during the previous were gone, like they never existed.

Caught up in his own mind Shadow had almost forgot Maria was even there.

"Beautiful, is it?" she asked.

"Yeah," he replied.

"You know," she starts turning to look at Shadow, "they say that if you make a wish at Never Lake with Little Planet above, it comes true."

Shadow absorbs this information with a small nod.

"So," Maria begins again, "what would you wish for Shadow?"

Shadow thinks for a moment, knowing that if he had been asked that question even a month ago his answer would have been immediate. He quickly looks over at Maria noting her healthy skin color and remembering how she had been racing through the corridors.

She seemed, no he corrected himself, she was better. The crippling disease that had plagued since birth, gone like it had never been. Due to Gerald's mind, my blood, and chaos energy, Maria had a chance at life she'd never had before. The reason Shadow was made had been fulfilled.

'And not a moment to soon,' Shadow thought, again thinking of what might happen to him now that the government knew how powerful he was.

Fortunately, this pessimistic train of thought was derailed with a sharp pain to the side of the head. Rubbing the afflicted area he turned slightly to look at his attacker.

"Stop brooding so much," Maria intoned in a stern voice, which was only slightly spoiled by the humor in her eyes. "Or do I need to knock the happy into you?"

"How did you know I was brooding?" he asked, still rubbing his head unnecessarily.

"You got that far away look in your eyes," she informed him.

"Fine," he says, pasting on an overly exaggerated smile, that was considerably disturbing on his face. "I'm happy."

Maria shook her head slightly before returning to look out the glass.

As soon as she did, Shadow let his smile and his head drop. Thinking again on what he would wish for.

Quietly he muttered, "I wish people could just leave us alone."

"Why?" Maria asked.

Startled, he hadn't meant for her to here that, Shadow's head shoots up to look Maria in the eyes, eyes that now held only concern.

"Please, tell me what's wrong Shadow," she pleaded. "I know something's been bothering you since the Artificial Chaos went berserk."

Quickly, he debated with himself, before deciding. "I'm….scared Maria."

"Of what?" she asks.

"Of what happens now," he tells her looking out at Earth. "Ever since I was created I knew what my purpose was, to cure you. Now that I've done that I don't what else I was going to do."

"Oh…Shadow," Maria said, placing a hand on Shadow's shoulder.

"So, I committed myself to protecting you," he continues. "But when the incident happened I wondered if I could do that, and when it was over I was afraid of myself, of this new power I have, that I could hurt you with it."

Maria knelt down to put both arm around Shadow who continued staring out at Earth .

"I'm afraid of what the government's going to do now, that they'll make me a weapon of war," Shadow continued. "I'm afraid….." he finally turned his head to look at Maria, "…that I'll lose you."

"You won't," Maria promised.

Shadow shook his head. "You can't say that."

Maria stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I can. Shadow, Grandfather called this morning. He said that he worked things out with G.U.N.. He said that we could take the shuttle tomorrow. We're going to Earth Shadow!"


End file.
